Delivery receptacles are known in the art. Delivery receptacles can serve to receive the unattended delivery of one or more items. The use of delivery receptacles, however, gives rise to a variety of corresponding problems. When the items being delivered are frozen or refrigerated, for example, there is a risk that the item will warm or thaw to a point of being unsuitable for its intended purpose before the recipient can recover the item from the delivery receptacle.
Refrigerated delivery receptacles can help to ameliorate such a risk. Unfortunately, refrigeration components can be a relatively expensive option that also gives rise to a variety of usage and maintenance challenges.
Communication devices, such as radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags, that include an integral, on-board temperature sensor are known in the art. Such an RFID tag could be placed inside a delivery receptacle to provide temperature readings of the interior of the delivery receptacle when read by an RFID tag reader. Reading such a tag, however, and possibly then communicating the ascertained temperature information to a remote location, requires energy. There are many application settings where minimizing the expenditure of energy constitutes a significant design requirement. Setting the periodicity of reading and reporting a temperature sensing RFID tag to be relatively infrequent to thereby save energy carries with it the concurrent risk that the temperature inside the delivery receptacle may warm to an unacceptable degree before such a state is detected. Conversely, setting the frequency of reading and reporting a temperature sensing RFID tag to be relatively frequent to avoid such a risk carries with it the necessary requirement of increased (and likely unnecessary) energy usage.
Elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions and/or relative positioning of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of various embodiments of the present teachings. Also, common but well-understood elements that are useful or necessary in a commercially feasible embodiment are often not depicted in order to facilitate a less obstructed view of these various embodiments of the present teachings. Certain actions and/or steps may be described or depicted in a particular order of occurrence while those skilled in the art will understand that such specificity with respect to sequence is not actually required. The terms and expressions used herein have the ordinary technical meaning as is accorded to such terms and expressions by persons skilled in the technical field as set forth above except where different specific meanings have otherwise been set forth herein.